Bank of Baroda is second most profitable public sector bank

State-owned Bank of Baroda (BoB) has pipped PNB to become the country's second largest public sector lender in terms of annual profit.

State-owned Bank of Baroda (BoB) has pipped PNB to become the country's second largest public sector lender in terms of annual profit.

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Mumbai-based BoB's net profit crossed Rs 5,000 crore during 2011-12, a rise of 18% from the previous year.

Punjab National Bank's (PNB) net profit rose by 10.2% to Rs 4,884 crore for the fiscal ended March, 2012.

The country's largest bank State Bank of India in the first nine months of 2011-12 has posted a net profit of Rs 8,243.64 crore. Its profit in 2010-11 stood Rs 8,264.5 crore .

BoB Chairman and Managing Director MD Mallya had said last week the bank had been able to post sound growth despite economic challenges like industrial slowdown, high inflation and elevated interest rates.

During the year, BoB's gross NPA rose to 1.53% of total advances in 2011-12 from 1.36% in the previouis year.

Significantly, the gross NPA for PNB as a proportion of advances went up to 2.93% against 1.79% at the end of March last year.

As regards fourth quarter is concerned, BoB had posted net profit of Rs 1,518.18 crore, while PNB's bottom line rose to Rs 1,424.06 crore.

Total income of BoB during the quarter rose by 25.8% to Rs 9,016 crore from Rs 7,168.6 crore in the year-ago period.

Mumbai-based lender which reported a tax gain of around Rs 322 crore in the fourth quarter, posted a 7% rise in net interest income (NII) to Rs 2,797 crore.

Similarly, net interest margin stood at 3.44% for domestic operations and 2.96% for international operations during the fourth quarter of 2011-12.